To err is human, to typewrite err, divine.

I finally managed to connect my Silver Reed EX-32 with a Centronics-to-USB bidirectional cable and get it to print (a rough video is embedded at the end of this post). It ain’t fast but, hey, what’s the rush?

The above steps are pretty much the same on my Windows 10 laptop. However, it refused to cooperate, or elaborate further on this minimalist error notification (clicking on it simply opened up the print queue).

No luck, no matter how many times (4) I switched USB ports.

In addition to setting up a Generic/Text printer and pairing it with a USB port, you have to press CODE + P to toggle between Typing mode and Printer mode. This is revealed on pages 28 and 29 of the Silver Reed EX-32 Operating Manual …

The Silver Reed I/F44 interface box is specific (I think) to the Silver Reed EX-44 (and EX-43N), and connects to the front of the typewriter via a flat cable. …

Putting this to use will be a bigger challenge, should I ever trade-in my EX-42 for an EX- 44.

In pre-USB times, parallel and serial interface boxes were very common. The AEG Olympia Carrera, for example, offered an “IF-Box” very similar to the I/F44 …

The Canon S-300 (introduced in March 1987 and also sold as the UTAX T-3300) occupies the same ambiguous “portable-compact” territory as machines like the Brother CE-70. Functionality-wise, it sits at the top of the S-series …

Wanted “Dead or Alive”S-300 (serial port on the right-hand sideMemory card slot on the left-hand side

The Canon S-200 (also sold as the UTAX T-3200, below) is a lower-spec model, without an LCD screen, and without any of the extra (Text, Mode, margin and tabulation) keys to the left and right of the main keyboard.

UTAX T 3200 AKA Canon S-200 (above)

According to specifications the S-300 boasts (this example in my collection is *dead* so I can’t test this):

A top speed of 14 cps

An impressively low noise reading of 50 dBA

A 31 character LCD screen

The “truly compact” AP-1500 (16 cps) is actually less compact (in terms of its footprint) and takes a larger ribbon, however the difference in “class” shows when you compare them side by side …

Weight-wise these two typewriters are similar, however the S-300 shares more in common with the AP-150 (July 1985, 15 cps), and takes the same ribbon. I guess the category it fits into could be “personal compact” as opposed to “office compact”: In other words, a cheaper, brighter, lower-level, more consumer-friendly version of a compact typewriter.

I *think* the Canon MX-300 (below) is the same typewriter …

Model name variants (possibly regional) confuse matters. Another example is this almost identical S-68S …

And this anomalous (I’ve only ever seen this one) Korean-made S-66 MX which is very close to the AP-150 in its keyboard layout …

Different, yes, but note the “vacant lot” immediately to the left of the Return key. The S-300 has the same thing …

The S-300S (S = more storage options?) has “a vacant lot” at the far left of its top-most row of keys. …

Canon S-300S (above)

Should you find a working model S-300, or similar, let me know how it goes. Ribbon cassettes are still reasonably easy to find worldwide. The typewriters themselves, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly scarce. 😉

Vladimir Nabokov’s mention (in his partial-autobiography Speak, Memory) of the French novelist Gustave Flaubert’s debut novel Madame Bovary (1857) as “unsurpassed”, led me to read it and see whether his use of the superlative was justified.

It was. Having read the book for the first time I can see Flaubert may have had more than a minor influence on Nabokov’s writing style and subject matter.

Take for example, the scene in which the druggist. Homais, chastises his simpleton of a servant, Justin, after discovering him in possession of a volume of pornography, but then softens his attitude, adding:

“It is not that I entirely disapprove of the work. Its author was a doctor! There are certain scientific points in it that it is not ill in a man should know, and I would even venture to say that a man must know.”

This, and Flaubert’s portrayal of Emma, his female protagonist, as a woman with carnal desires is illuminating, especially when you learn that Flaubert, no stranger to brothels, suffered from venereal disease for most of his life.

As well as pursuing women, Flaubert believed in, and pursued, the principle of finding “le mot juste” (“the right word”).

According to Amazon, there are 117, 120 of them, and the average reader will spend 7 hours and 48 minutes reading Madame Bovary at 250 WPM (words per minute).

ACCOUNTING machines have become as almost a familiar sight in today’s office as the ubiquitous typewriter. And with good reason. With more and more improvements being added to them each year, accounting machines are now doing more than ever. Not only do they provide up-to-date posting of hard copy records such as statements and ledgers but some also handled the same work as data processing machines. And although these machines were originally designed for large organisations, medium-size and small businesses alike now find it practicable to do all or part of their record keeping by machine. What does an accounting machine do? Basically its function is to post an account and to work out the necessary balance extensions. It combines the abilities of a typewriter and an adding machine. Such a machine has to carry multiple registers if checks. and analyses are to be made simultaneously with each entry, and a cross, footing device is required for horizontal adding purposes.

All kinds of machines fitted with a carriage and a keyboard, which can be used to enter reference information plus statistical and financial data for a transaction into a card type ledger can be called an accounting machine. The range and variety of machines on the market is large. You can buy a synchronised typewriter with adding listing machine for around $1600. At the other end of the scale are the sophisticated electronic units which can cost $40,000.

I erred (see tag line ↑) in a 2015 post “Letters from Nakajima” by assuming that the Hermes Top-tronic 15 was made by Nakajima.

In fact, the”Top-tronics” 15, 15-1 and 16. were made by Japanese manufacturer Towa Sankiden.

Other Hermes “Top-tronics”, as well as other Hermes and Japy electronic typewriters (Hermes Palliard took over Japy in 1971), were supplied by Olivetti after they took over the Switzerland headquartered Hermes Precisa in 1984.

Olivetti acquired AT & T in 1983, so some of the models listed may also have been sold as AT & T typewriters:

Hermes 26 portable – especially made for Hermes by Olivetti with a paltry speed of 10 cps.

Hermes 28 (ET-109, SERD 2000) a compact machine which zips along at 20 cps per second 1986?

The Hermes Top-tronic 51 with external display screen and the Hermes Super 40, are listed (in Info-markt Ratgeber 1984-85) as manufactured by Hermes Precisa Deutchland GmbH, however I suspect the Japanese (Towa) were involved.